Game Design - Random Thoughts 01

My gaming group is a fickle bunch. They will buy practically anything for a system that they already own.

Totally used without permission

As such, I have access to nearly the entire collection of Warhammer 40k material starting with Rogue Trader up to the present.

The same could be said for Pathfinder. While very few of of the group own the core rule book, everyone owns at least ONE Pathfinder book.

This can be a problem if we want to try something other than grimdark battles or fantasy role playing. Especially since there is some laggard response to any new attempts at purchasing products/systems outside of what we already play.

For instance, I want to play miniature space battles. Everyone has a few star ship miniatures from various manufactures/factions. What we lack is a generic cohesive rule set. Now, I am personally a big fan Full Thrust. The price is right (free) and allows for comprehensive ship design.

The problem is lazy players. I have e-mailed them all the rules. I have even printed out the rules for myself. The lazy SOBs will NOT read the damn rules or stat out their ships prior to getting together to play. Not to mention Full Thrust uses specific symbols to represent ship statistics which takes time to get used to/instinctively interpret/use.

Seriously, when I have time to play, I want to PLAY, not teach, nor design my lazy buddy's fleet for him.

SO, I must create a rule set so simple, that a near comatose turnip can design a fleet in a few minutes and has rules simple enough that it encompasses no more space than two pages or so.

From FreeVector - Looks really cool

Here are a few principals I want to include in the system;

1: A single 3x5 card per unit(s). No army lists, no codexes, no clipboards.

2: Every stat must be equally important during the game. If it does not meet this criteria, it's out. This will assist with internal balance, if that type of thing is important to you.

3: Only positive modifiers that are added together. If a negative modifier applies it should be mechanically added to other sides bonuses.

4: No IGOUGO

5: There should be an element of randomness/fog of war integral to the system.

Just a few thoughts. More to come in the future!